TarheelJD, I just moved into the Chapel Hill area, maybe you could give me some helpful advice. After searching for days online, and spending a week talking with local shops and climbers, I cant seem to find a spot to boulder that is not an hour or more away, or illegal to access. Im not looking for anything amazing, just a rock close by to train on between climbing trips. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

TarheelJD, I just moved into the Chapel Hill area, maybe you could give me some helpful advice. After searching for days online, and spending a week talking with local shops and climbers, I cant seem to find a spot to boulder that is not an hour or more away, or illegal to access. Im not looking for anything amazing, just a rock close by to train on between climbing trips. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

There really is not much. The Pump Tunnel on MLK Blvd and Forrest Theater come to mind. Otherwise, get to a gym (UNC, Chapel Hill CC, Vertical Edge, or TRC). In the winter, Asheboro is about an hour away, you need to be a CCC member which is cheap and well worth it. There are a couple of boulders at University Lake.

csproul, I have heard of the tunnel on MLK, but what is the forest theater? Also, I went looking for the boulders at University lake, but there where no trails and everything was fenced off. If you could tell me how to find them, that would be killer. Also, if anyone wants to hit these boulders up, let me know. Im not really a "boulderer", I just find that gym climbing does not translate well to rock, so I like to use bouldering as the major part of my training when I dont live near a crag. Thanks for the help!

csproul, I have heard of the tunnel on MLK, but what is the forest theater? Also, I went looking for the boulders at University lake, but there where no trails and everything was fenced off. If you could tell me how to find them, that would be killer. Also, if anyone wants to hit these boulders up, let me know. Im not really a "boulderer", I just find that gym climbing does not translate well to rock, so I like to use bouldering as the major part of my training when I dont live near a crag. Thanks for the help!

Forrest Theater is an outdoor theater near campus that is made of rock walls and rock pillars. People often boulder on the walls. I'm not sure how legal it is is, but people often do it. You can find the location by searching on the UNC campus webpage. I have never been to University Lake boulders. I think they are legal, but there are only a couple of boulders with a few problems. I still think your best bet is to hit the gym. These other options are really poor and you will get much more out of gym training in this area. There are some pretty good day trips from Chapel Hill, and even better weekend trips, but for local training options, I don't think there is anything better than the gyms. For actual bouldering, Asheboro is fantastic and is ~1 hr away. For rope climbing, Moores, Cookes, and Pilot are all less than 1.5 hrs...that's about as close as things get.

I put this traverse wall up in 1993 with the the permission of UNC when I was in graduate school per the comment by TarHeelJD.

It was never meant to last this long and it's expected life was about 3-4 years. Reflectors on public roads last about that long with hundreds of cars hitting them daily.

It was built because there was no real place to climb in the area and I wanted to give myself and other local climbers a place to train with a traverse and work endurance. Free. I was a poor graduate student.

I pulled the rocks out of Asheville NC stream, cleaned them, designed/set traverse routes, and used road adhesive to apply them to the wall. Over the next year, the local climbers and myself removed or replaced the holds that flexed or popped off. The idea was that the traverse would be a couple of feet off of the ground at its highest point (ideally with a spotter) and not meant for vertical climbing. We all recognized the potential hazard if a hold came of of the wall.

During the 3 years that I was living at UNC, we maintained the wall and the holds. George (a local climber and friend that had recently moved to RTP) weighed about 265 lbs and never had a hold give way during that time.

I'm not surprised that the adhesive for the holds are wearing and that they are not safe. I have run into several people from UNC over the years that climbed on this wall while students at UNC. I was there in 2012 and two students were using it. I was shocked. It's likely gotten more use than anyone ever intended with many local students and climbers enjoying it.

I would love to see UNC put up a replacement professionally built outdoor traverse wall. This walls safety is likely compromised so I would be very cautious about its current viability.